John Dean
- Interesting, any theories on how this happened?
Richard Monroe
- Well, either the cameras were broken, or the guy who did this knew what he was doing. It would seem he remotely deactivated all of our security, killed MRS. DiMaestro, and then left unnoticed.
John Dean
- I see how could this be done exactly?
Richard Monroe
- Well, no system is stronger than its weakest link. Since the security systems by design and as ordered by Antonio DiMaestro are possible to control remotely, it could be done by just guessing the right password. A lot of people are not very good at picking a good password.
John Dean:
- I see, so why was the alarm activated then?
Richard Monroe
- We are investigating this at the moment. It was either activated by the same person who deactivated the system, or by a glitch in the system. We'll have to make an internal investigation and get back to you this afternoon.
John Dean:
- Please do; here is my card. Anything else to add?
Richard Monroe:
- Yes, there was an incident earlier that evening with a drunken man threatening the victim, Miranda DiMaestro, via the intercom, so she felt compelled to call security. This event activated the camera feed for ten minutes until our men turned the feed off. Please take this USB stick with that video.
John Dean:
- Thank you. You have been very helpful; please call me later today when your analysis is complete.
Richard Monroe
- Will do sir, good luck with the investigation
After this conversation, John went back to his car to watch the video from the earlier incident at the DiMaestro Mansion last night. He could see a drunken man on the street cursing and kicking an empty plastic bottle. John immediately recognised the man “Oh my god it’s Michael Fuller!” he said to himself, before falling back into his chair struggling with severe decision anxiety on how to proceed.
3.5 Thomas Anderson finds some contra-dictionary evidence
MEANWHILE, THOMAS ANDERSON was searching the house for any technological pieces of data that might hint the team in the right direction. He did find a few pieces of very counter-intuitive evidence. Apparently, Antonio DiMaestro had sent a series of threatening E-mails to Miranda Dimaestro over the last few months, and from this correspondence, it was clear that their relationship was stormy. On the other hand, in the latest text messages found in Miranda DiMaestro's phone, the tone was completely different. Apparently, it had been Antonio DiMaestro that she was setting up a romantic night for when she interrupted by her murderer who effectively spoilt all her plans for an excellent evening, as well as any other plans she might have for the future. Since Thomas Anderson was not an expert on stormy relationships or any relationships for that matter he decided to take this contra-dictionary evidence to the perpetrator profiling support function of the CSMI. What he also put on his to-do list was to check the technical integrity of the inbox and the Cell phone to check if these messages were sent the time the timestamps claimed.
While investigating the house, he also found some of the concealed security cameras in the building. Sadly all of the wirings led to a locked room, and Thomas did not feel like tampering with the crime scene by picking a lock without discussing the matter with the rest of his team. Thomas kept looking for clues but was unable to find any. A bit later during the day the stolen property department had done their review of the items in the building and had concluded that four of the paintings were on their list of stolen goods.
Thomas Anderson decided to call James Locker:
James Locker (half asleep):
- Hi, Thomas, what are your findings?
Thomas Anderson:
- Seriously mate, were you sleeping?
James Locker:
- Of course not, what are your findings?
Thomas Anderson
- Well, several; apparently Antonio sent a lot of threatening E-mail messages to Miranda and yet it seems like he was the one she was setting up a romantic evening for. What would you make of that?
James Locker:
- Well, that does not necessarily mean more than that they were fighting, and now they were trying to reconcile. What else?
Thomas Anderson:
- Apparently, the place is full of concealed security cameras. They are all wired to the same locked room. I decided to not pick the lock until after having discussed it at the team meeting. Oh, and Stolen property team was here. They found that four of the paintings were registered as stolen, you had a sharp eye on that one.
James Locker:
- This discovery is significant; possessing high value stolen art is among the things you can send an international arrest order through Interpol. Finding this Antonio DiMaestro guy must be our top priority in this case. I will handle it with Barry.
Thomas Anderson:
- Excellent, and one more thing, can you request a trace for Antonio's phone last night?
James Locker:
- Of course, leave it to me and the BITCH. See you at 3 pm.
3.6 The 21st August 3 PM staff meeting
AT 3 PM THE SAME DAY the team gathered to recapitulate their findings and decide on how to move on. They were all gathered in the same depressing room that James Locker had held his inauguration speech in the day before, well everyone except for Barry Itch who was not directly involved in daily work and meetings of the separate teams. James Locker looking exhausted started the talking
James Locker:
- Well, let's summarise the case this far. We have a murdered woman Miranda DiMaestro. We have her shady husband Antonio DiMaestro who was supposed to meet up with her on a romantic encounter last night. What we know is that they did not meet for a romantic meeting at least. Furthermore, the killer entered the mansion and bypassed the security system surpassed only by high-level government agencies, unnoticed. E-mail correspondence states that they had been fighting lately. Antonio's phone was in the neighbourhood at the time of the crime. In the mansion, we have found four pieces of high valued stolen art. The case is clear, Antonio must be our man.
Samantha Robinson:
- Yeah obviously what you are saying is pointing in that direction, but there are several issues in this case that don’t feel right to me.
James Locker:
- I see. Can you please share your thoughts with the group on this matter? Oh and while you are at it, what were your findings? The only one who called in and reported before the meeting was Thomas.
Samantha Robinson:
- Well, my issues with the case are this:
- The murderers choice of weapon and killing method. This kill was a calculated murder, done by a professional, and not a crime of passion. If Antonio killed his wife due to calculated reasons why would he text her and ask her to set up a romantic evening? The smartest would be to get an alibi and let a hitman do it while he was far away.
- If he chooses to kill her and has the mental presence to deactivate all the buildings security before doing so, why on earth would he have his phone turned on. If he somehow was unaware that cell phones act as a 24-hour tracking device, why would he shut down the phone shortly after leaving the scene?
- As for my findings; well I was talking to the neighbours accompanied by Assistant Johnson and Baker. What we found out was that no-one heard any gunshots. Considering Miranda was shot six times, this most likely indicates the use of a silenced weapon. One neighbour, however, spoke about a drunken man standing outside the house swearing and muttering for at least 10 minutes before finally leaving. The Neighbour called the security company, Mosman Scrooge Security, to have the nuisance removed from the neighbourhood. They had already received a call on this matter however and said they were on their way.
James Locker:
- Okay, the communication with MSS is John’s responsibility, so don’t worry about that. As for your issue with Antonio DiM
aestro being the killer, what is your theory?
Samantha Robinson:
- That someone with vast resources is trying to set him up, perhaps a rival who has been unable to get to him.
James Locker:
- And the stolen art?
Samantha Robinson
- Well, those pieces seem to have been there for a long time; Antonio is probably guilty of this.
James Locker:
- Interesting, Well I guess you should be talking with the organised crime department, they might know if Antonio had any enemies. Oh, and can you contact Miranda's relatives and friends back in Colombia? Your file says you are the best Spanish speaker in the team.
Samantha Robinson:
- Well, I am not fluent in any way, but I'll give it a shot.
James Locker:
- Moving on, Thomas you have already reported your findings to me. What's new?
Thomas Anderson:
- Nothing. I was unable to pick the lock to the locked secure room of the mansion. Some of the guys from the forensics team also tried and also failed. Whatever is hidden in there it must worth a lot to make all that effort keeping it safe. We'll get back there in due time and blow the lock off with explosives, but we can't-do that until we swept the house for evidence. Will probably be tomorrow afternoon or Friday morning.
James Locker:
- Well, we certainly don't want to ruin the evidence and have this Antonio guy getting cleared by a technicality, proceed when you are finished with the forensics. Moving on to Adam; how is the search for Antonio going?
Adam Smith
- Pretty bad, unfortunately. At first, the organised crime department refused to help me because I don't have clearance to access their investigations. So I asked Barry for permission, but considering our frosty relation, he was stalling it and questioned why I even needed approval for the file. Instead, I visited the reception of Antonio's import/export business. They told me he was still abroad; apparently, he has not felt any interest in assisting us in the Lopez investigation.
James Locker:
- The Lopez investigation?
Adam Smith:
- Oh yeah, you were not part of that case as you were home "sick." The last case we had before our Asia trip. A professional killer killing a guy in a warehouse owned by Antonio DiMaestro's company. Unfortunately for our killer, the place had video surveillance. Even more unfortunate for him he was unable to dodge bullets when he tried a Matrix shootout when starting a firefight with the airport police. He got shot several times and died on the way to the hospital. With the suspected killer dead, we transferred the case to the organised crime department.
James Locker:
- I see; Antonio only gets more and more interesting! So you have not been able to find out about his whereabouts then?
Adam Smith:
- That’s correct, even after I got clearance from Barry to access the DiMaestro file, I got nowhere. The last observation The Organized Crime department have of him is more than five weeks old.
James Locker:
- I see. Well since both you and Samantha have business with the OC department go there together. Two brains are better than one.
- Oh well, we have been saving the best for last, John what's your findings.
John Dean had been sitting all the way through the meeting fearing for when it was his turn to speak. He could not decide on how to act with information and evidence that Michael Fuller was outside the DiMaestro drunk and threatening Miranda via the intercom. If John destroyed the evidence, he could be charged with evidence tampering which at the least would lead to immediate dismissal and at worst could lead to some serious jail time. If he, however, told them about Michael Fuller's behaviour and it turned out that Michael Fuller was innocent he could have led the investigation in the wrong direction. He decided to at least confront Michael Fuller with the facts before sharing it with the team.
John Dean:
- Well, I spoke with Richard Monroe, manager of public affairs, at Mosman Scrooge Security. He was a helpful fellow, but as it seems to me the facts he provides us with makes this investigation more complicated.
James Locker:
- Well, complexity is a part of the job, the reality is never easy, but it's our job to put complicated facts together into a smooth case.
John Dean:
- Okay here is the deal. The killer apparently knew how to deactivate all of the security systems remotely, so there is no trace of him at the surveillance tapes.
James Locker:
- Disabling the cameras remotely would be a very natural way to act if Antonio DiMaestro indeed is the killer. He for sure must have the access codes to the remote access of his house's security.
John Dean:
- Oh, I am sure he does, but here is the strange thing, straight after the killer left the house, he remotely activated the alarm. The security company could see the corpse of Miranda on their screens but no trace of the murderer. It's as he wanted the body found as quickly as possible.
James Locker:
- Strange indeed, what about the drunken man who threatened Miranda over the intercom earlier, any trace of him?
John Dean:
- Well MSS activated the feed to all the cameras and thus their recording function straight after Miranda's call I am still looking through all of the feeds, but as for now, I have not had any vision of the threatening man.
James Locker:
- Keep looking; his identity is indeed necessary to verify.
James Locker:
- That's it for now unless anyone has any objections, I will go out with a press conference in an hour giving some minor details to the media and stating that our primary suspect at this time is Antonio DiMaestro but that we are also looking at other undisclosed solutions to the case. Does anyone have any objections to this plan?
As the procedure seemed reasonable to the group, no one had any objections. They agreed to hold a daily meeting at the same time every day for the time being, and the meeting was over.
3.7 Michael Fuller & John Dean form an alliance
MICHAEL FULLER HAD spent the whole day drinking and listening to music. Because of this, he was blissfully unaware of Miranda DiMaestro's death. Michael was pretty vegetating and was not aware of much at all when John Dean called to remind him about their planned meeting. "Damn what he sounded upset," Michael thought for himself before checking his watch. It was 4 PM, and John had requested a meeting at the local pub near John Dean's house at 7 pm. Michael realised that he better sleep for a while and have a shower before meeting with John Dean as it would be hard to convince someone to help him while he was stinking of alcohol and his eyes were blood red. He set his alarm for 6 pm and went to bed for a nap.
Before he fell asleep, he was considering the option just to walk away and let things be. Financially it would not be a big deal. He had lots of money from working at a high position as well as all the annual leaves he had saved up that would get paid out now that he had quit his job. Furthermore, his house was worth a lot of money since he had inherited it from his parents who in turn had bought it long before the property bubble had hit Sydney. If he sold his house, he could comfortably live an excellent life somewhere else and still leave an inheritance to his daughter when it was time to check out. Oh yes, his daughter if he just stepped down now he could finally have the time to at least try repairing their relationship. But then he got his resolve back, he had been wrongfully accused and had lost what he loved the most in the world. He would find the person behind this bullshit and have him hanged! Satisfied with his resolve he fell into a few hours of slumber.
Meanwhile, John Dean sat at his office and felt much stressed. Officially he was working on reviewing all the surveillance tapes to see if he could identify anything leading to the identity of the unknown drunken man who had threatened Miranda DiMaestro just before the murder. Knowing this man was his former boss and friend Michael Fuller put him in a terrible mood. He would so
mehow have to deliver the videos with commentary at the staff meeting the day after, but if he was sure about Michael's innocence, he could tamper with the videos a bit, so they became too blurry for precise identification. Doing this was a pretty safe procedure, but it would only buy him time since blurry videos could be sent to a technician subcontractor who was an expert in getting a clear picture. "However since they seem pretty locked on Antonio DiMaestro, they might overlook the option to have the picture made clear," he thought and decided to go with that option.
In his family life, he also suffered from a lot of stress. His daughter had epilepsy and had seizures regularly. Either he or his wife had to stay home with her during these periods which cost them money and career opportunities. His wife had stayed home with his daughter a vast majority of the seizures in the later years as he had assured her that he was in the frontline of getting a promotion to a detective's rank and thus get a sizeable well-needed pay raise. Now that he so clearly had been sidestepped and not even asked to be the provisional detective, it became apparent for the Dean spouses that his career opportunities were dull and his wife was upset over having forsaken her career for his failed ambitions.
John Dean finally stopped struggling with himself and made up his mind. He had decided on a course of action which not was in line with his ambitions or morals, but his struggling finances and the disappointment over being sidestepped had dulled his senses. John decided that if Michael Fuller wanted help from him, he would have to pay for it, handsomely. He copied all the data he had available on Antonio DiMaestro to a USB memory stick. There was a lot of data at this stage since the Central Sydney Organized Crime department, CSOC, had opened up their files on Antonio DiMaestro for the CSMI during the ongoing murder investigation. John Dean also copied all the data on the Miranda DiMaestro murder as well as the video of Michael Fuller outside the DiMaestro mansion the same night.
James Locker- The Duality of Fate Page 5